Archive for May 4, 2017

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Los Angeles, CA - Family members of three victims of the December 2015 shooting rampage in San Bernardino, California, have sued Facebook, Google and Twitter, claiming that the tech giants permitted Islamic State to flourish on social media.
The plaintiffs assert that by allowing Islamic State militants to spread propaganda freely on social media, the three companies provided "material...

New York - Wal-Mart Stores Inc has applied for a patent to compete with Amazon.com Inc's wifi-connected, one-button ordering device, Amazon Dash, according to data provider CB Insights.
The patent, filed in October, would be the first of Wal-Mart's more than 800 patents and applications to focus on Internet of Things and branches into shoppers' homes, CB Insights said.
Wal-Mart's system...

Washington - A pair of President Donald Trump's recent weekend trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort cost taxpayers more than $1.2 million, new documents released by a conservative group show.
The documents made public Thursday by Judicial Watch are some of the first to put even part of a price tag on Trump's frequent visits to his Palm Beach, Florida, club. The numbers reflect only the costs...

New York - Stephen Colbert, whose crude reference to Donald Trump angered some of the president's supporters this week, has lobbed zingers at him at the blistering pace of 3.37 a day during the chief executive's first 100 days in office.
Trump is on pace to be the most joked-about president in late-night television in at least 25 years, the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason...

Los Angeles - U.S. immigration agents cannot effectively track foreigners who overstay their visas because of outdated technology involving numerous computer systems and a lack of screening when visitors leave the country, according to a government watchdog report released Thursday.
Agents and analysts must use 10 to 40 passwords to access the computer systems, said the report by the U.S...

New York - The looming arrival of a new Manhattan area code has triggered waves of dismay and anger online, while owners of the coveted original 212 telephone prefix swelled with pride on Thursday.
The proliferation of mobile phones in the most populous U.S. city prompted the New York Public Service Commission to say it will add the area code 332 in 2017, years after 646 and 917 joined the...

Washington - Jewish groups largely came out against a new executive order allowing clergy to endorse or oppose candidates from the pulpit, fearing that it will erode the separation between church and state.
The order, which President Donald Trump signed Thursday at the White House on the National Day of Prayer, effectively reverses a 1954 regulation called the Johnson Amendment that...

Washington - The call of the wild is getting harder to hear.
Peaceful, natural sounds— bird songs, rushing rivers and rustling grass — are sometimes being drowned out by noise from people in many of America's protected parks and wilderness areas, a new study finds.
Scientists measured sound levels at 492 places — from city parks to remote federal wilderness. They calculated that in...

New York - A few hundred protesters lined up Thursday along Manhattan's West Side Highway to jeer Donald Trump's motorcade as he made his first trip home to New York since becoming president of the United States.
Trump sped by just before 7 p.m. on his way to attend a dinner with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull aboard the USS Intrepid, a decommissioned aircraft carrier that is now a...

Washington - Presidential adviser Omarosa Manigault, a former reality TV star, said she would “look forward” to meeting with Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader known for his anti-Semitic statements.
“I think any of your audience would know I’ve never shied away from having an open, and I believe a good, relationship with Louis Farrakhan,” Manigault said Thursday morning in...

New York - If you're busy planning a wedding, you might want to consider insuring it.
Wedding insurance policies are relatively easy to understand, and the two main types are both inexpensive compared with the cost of a ceremony and reception:
—Liability insurance covers you in case of an injury or property damage at the wedding. Liquor liability, sometimes a separate coverage, pays out...

Washington - The Republican push to replace the Affordable Care Act was revived this week in Congress by a small change to their plan designed to combat concerns over coverage for those with pre-existing health problems.
The change helped get the bill through the House of Representatives in a tight vote Thursday, but experts say it may make little difference in the hunt for affordable coverage...

Washington - The U.S. Department of State has proposed tougher questioning of visa applicants who it believes warrant extra scrutiny, according to a government document published Thursday, in a push toward the "extreme vetting" sought by President Donald Trump.
The additional criteria would include questions about social media accounts and apply to 65,000 people per year or about 0.5 percent...

Bedminster, NJ - The quiet swath of rolling hills and horse farms President Donald Trump is expected to use as a weekend summertime retreat is a world apart from his more notable haunts in Palm Beach and New York City.
Two-lane roads are the norm in Bedminster, mostly sans sidewalks. In some corners of the township, horses outnumber people. The police force numbers 16, including its...

Jerusalem - An elderly Israeli rabbi who is serving the remainder of a shortened prison sentence under house arrest because of an illness has said that he deserves capital punishment as outlined in the bible in retribution for the crimes he committed.
As previously reported on VIN News (http://bit.ly/2oq7Nbn) 80 year old Rabbi Eliezer Berland, head of the Shuvu Bonim yeshiva in Jerusalem, was...